Okay, about ladies-prefer-striking and ladies-don't-like-shrieking, we might want to remember that:

1) It might be a better idea to train people in accordance with what the attacker may do (and rapists do tend to like like to get their victims horizontal),

and

2) There is value to piercing and unexpected screams, in terms of both surprise and possibly attracting attention (I say possibly because of the Kitty Genovese tragedy).

The same reason we have to teach people to deal effectively with takedown attempts (tackles, getting jumped, whatever) even if they "don't like to go to the ground", applies even more when life and limb are at risk.

One can train for what one would like to do--and hope for the best--or one can train to deal effectively with what the attacker may wish to do.

Leatherman multi tools make great self defense weapons. Knives aren't the be all end all. Hit someone with a Leatherman and they go down pretty quickly. And it's not considered a 'concealed weapon' which is nice. It has a knife in it but you're not deploying it in a hurry though. And I say this from a country where switch blades and butterfly knives are illegal.

Aww good to see traditionally it was a real pain in the ass to get the blade out on most multi-tools.
I certainly would think you're better off having a multi-tool on you from a legal perspective. Of course that is based on....I have no idea of what's that based on.....

In college I almost assaulted a guy that was breaking into my car to steal my stereo. My only weapon- a pair of pliers, that I was gonna use to grab him by the ear and drag him to the ground, but he ran off as I approached. in retrospect, I'm glad he ran off cause I might have gotten stabbed for my trouble.

I certainly would think you're better off having a multi-tool on you from a legal perspective. Of course that is based on....I have no idea of what's that based on.....

In CA, its legal to carry a folder of any length as long as its not a switchblade/gravity knife/balisong, and its legal to carry a fixed blade of any length in a belt sheath (concealed fixed blades can only have a 2in blade though). I've confirmed this stuff with a cop I train with. Not all street cops know their laws though- one time a cop took my knife and measured it against his palm- a measurement standard not used in CA law (for obvious reasons). There's also a catch-all law that a dagger or dirk is illegal, which is basically defined as anything you could shank someone with, as defined by intent. So, a screwdriver could be an illegal knife if you're chasing people around with it holding it like an icepick. There's also some city laws in CA so when I'm traveling I just carry something small.

One of the BJJ schools I trained in was pretty good about combining some self-defense instruction in with the regular curriculum. Say we were working on a rear-naked choke, they'd teach the "dirtier" ways to get someone's head back (i.e. ridge hand under nose) and we'd work it enough to get the point. Pretty much every position has a way to apply extra pain/pressure that isn't really acceptable to use in regular sparring, but might be okay to use (discretely :P) in a tournament, and is perfect for a real fight.

Obviously, this instruction also accounted for things that you'd be facing in a self-defense situation that you wouldn't have to worry about in training. Mainly what happens when your opponent can punch, kick, or stomp you. Or in the example of applying a rear-naked choke, you need to keep your own head tight against your opponent because you're wide open to receive a head butt, and you should also be wary of fingers to your eyes because when you start choking someone they're going to go crazy.

In college I almost assaulted a guy that was breaking into my car to steal my stereo. My only weapon- a pair of pliers, that I was gonna use to grab him by the ear and drag him to the ground, but he ran off as I approached. in retrospect, I'm glad he ran off cause I might have gotten stabbed for my trouble.

When I was at Moteng one of the worse questions to answer was always about the legality of carrying a knife. Especially where the line was drawn for concealed carry. Things like a 5 inch folder does the clip have to be shown?

As illustrated by the I fought the law thread this **** gets complicated and its rarely black or white. So I feel that stabbing someone with a multitool may play better with a jury as you can say hey I had it for the tools wasn't looking for trouble but it saved my life.